The Tour de France will return to the Loire in 2023, with a stage start in Roanne on July 13. Runners will set off for the 12th stage
for 169 kilometers to Belleville-en-Beaujolais, in the Rhone. Beyond the economic spin-offs, which should benefit the entire conurbation, the mayor of Roanne, Yves Nicolin, is delighted for the public: “__this is the latest free popular sport today, when you want to attend a Rugby or Football World Cup match, you have to pay for your place, cycling is still a free sport, we sit by the side of the road and watch the show”.
The mayor of Roanne is all the more satisfied that the Tour de France will be present on the eve of the National Day, which promises a great atmosphere according to him. “We go add a little bit of yellow to the blue-white-red flags”, he explains. Yves Nicolin must now finalize the details with the organizers of the Tour. The configuration of this stage start looks different from the only time the Grande Boucle has passed through Roanne so far.
Departure from the Scarabée
It was July 25, 2008, for a Roanne-Montluçon stage. The first stage of the Tour on the prize list of Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel. The runners then left the Place des Promenades.
On July 13, 2023, the start will be given from the Scarabée. ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, has already had the opportunity to test the Roanne theater since it hosted in 2019 an individual time trial for the Critérium du Dauphinéwith departure and arrival indoors
r, which was unprecedented in a professional cycling race in France. The municipality of Roanne had felt that there was a good vein to exploit with the Scarabée, since it had already proposed to ASO to use it as a starting site for a stage of the Tour de France fifteen years ago.